Injury Forces Matt Serra off UFC 79 Fight Card

UFC welterweight champion and current “The Ultimate Fighter” coach Matt Serra (9-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) suffered a herniated disc during a Monday training session and has been forced to pull out of his headline bout with former champ Matt Hughes (41-5 MMA, 15-3 UFC).

The fight was supposed to be the main draw of UFC 79, which takes place Dec. 29 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

“This is devastating news because they were so looking forward to fighting each other,” stated UFC President Dana White on UFC.com. “Unfortunately, injuries happen, and I look forward to Serra recovering quickly and to getting him back into the octagon.”

According to the report, Serra had just finished a routine training session when he was “gripped with pain and fell to the floor” while demonstrating a move. The 33-year-old New Yorker was rushed to a hospital, where an MRI revealed the herniated disc in his lower back.

There was no word on how long Serra might be out of action.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Serra stated. “I’ve never had a back injury before; I could hardly get off of the MRI table. There is no way I can train through this, and I’m devastated, especially because this was such an important fight. I was looking forward to fighting Matt Hughes. All my training was going phenomenally until Monday. All I can do now is to get better and to fight again as soon as possible.”

Unfortunately, the welterweight division’s title picture — which was already shut down for the taping and release of “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra” — will be further delayed.

The division, which is perhaps the deepest in the organization, has been on hold since Serra defeated former champ Georges St. Pierre nearly eight months ago. Soon after winning the belt, Serra was offered a chance to coach opposite Hughes, with whom he has a fairly bitter feud. The championship fight was supposed to cap off the Spike TV reality series.

In fact, St. Pierre, who scored a unanimous-decision over Josh Koscheck in August to earn top-contender’s status, could also be out of action for an extended period of time. White said that St. Pierre won’t fight again until his title shot with the winner of Serra vs. Hughes, and the former champion has already been on the sideline for the past three months.

With the loss of Serra vs. Hughes, and with the short time frame until UFC 79, a main-card bout between former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell and former PRIDE title-holder Wanderlei Silva could be bumped up to main-event status for the pay-per-view event. Both fighters are coming off back-to-back losses, but the bout remains one of the most-anticipated in mixed martial arts.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

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